Getting to the right place with ArcGIS Explorer

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:53:00 GMT

(Submitted by George Dailey, ESRI Education Program Manager)

I was setting up a meeting with the CEO of an ESRI business partner, US Computing, who will be in Dallas to discuss new student transportation software they have built. I recommended a Starbucks near my office and was sending him the address information, when I noticed something odd about the address Starbucks has listed on their Web site—basically, it’s wrong for location finding. It might be okay for mail delivery but not for someone unfamiliar with the area to arrive at/near the shop. Regardless, I still needed to get the CEO appropriate information.

It seemed yet another perfect activity for ArcGIS Explorer.

Using the Find Address task, I quickly mapped the supposed location Starbucks had on its Web site. While it’s in the vicinity, it plops the unsuspecting at an intersection on the wrong side of the shopping area which houses the coffee shop.

“What’s the Address Here?” task came to the rescue! Using this handy function, I positioned a point where I know the Starbucks to be and at the entrance of a perfect parking area. The task returned a more appropriate location finding/routing address for my partner to use. (NOTE: If this task does not appear in your Tasks listing, add it by going to the Tools Menu > Manage Tasks > Default Tasks, Add.)

Since I had mentioned the name of the shopping area to him, I used the “Create Notes” task to provide another landmark and a built-in Web pathway to the area’s information and stores, including the Starbucks.

With appropriate symbols, text, and popup placement, I saved my map and e-mailed (File menu > E-mail) the project file to my partner. He can now see exactly where he will be going and more importantly be able to create directions using the “Find Route” task that will actually get him to the shop.

Creating and sharing this map has “bean” easy to do.

Exploring the Collapse of Wall Arch

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:29:00 GMT

"Geology happens," one of my college professors used to say. Wall Arch, located in Arches National Park along the Devils Garden Trail, collapsed sometime during the night of August 4, 2008. Now that's geology in action.

The arch, according to the Arches National Park Web site, was first reported and named by Lewis T. McKinney in 1948. For the geologists among us, it was a free standing arch in the Slickrock member of the Entrada sandstone. Before it fell, the opening beneath its span was 71 feet wide and 33 1/2 feet high.

Using ArcGIS Explorer we went to have a closer look, beginning by using Find Place to locate Arches National Park.

Below you can see that got us to Arches, but we still didn't know where Wall Arch was located.

To find the location of the fallen arch we went to the Explorer Resource Center (File > Resource Center) and clicked the Layers tab to add the US Topo Maps layer (by clicking on its thumbnail).

Once the topo layer was added we could zoom in and look for the Devils Garden area that the news item on the Arches National Park Web site mentioned. That proved easy to find, and as we zoomed in to view the 1:24K scale topo maps we found that the arch was clearly marked.

We could tilt our view to see how the arch formed along one side of a sandstone rib, typical of many of the park's 2,000 or so arches. Another interesting perspective could be gained by using the swipe tool to examine the imagery underneath the topo layer.

To complete our little geology exercise we used Create Notes to place a point at the location, changed the note title, and added the URL of the news item to the popup note text.

Here's the result (no pun intended).

We saved the result with an adjusted view property and the popup window open, so that when you click here to open it you will automatically zoom to the (former) location of Wall Arch and see the popup display the news item from the park's Web site. We could also have e-mailed the result directly from Explorer. Geology in action, Explorer in action!

ArcGIS Explorer Blog : Create Notes

Getting to the right place with ArcGIS Explorer

Exploring the Collapse of Wall Arch